Central regions have been announcing their economic performance reports for the first quarter of this year. Among them, the "Central Triangle," consisting of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces, achieved a total GDP of 3,172.322 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 84.295 billion yuan compared to the same period last year.
According to data from the statistical departments of the three provinces of Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi, in the first quarter, Hubei's gross regional product reached 1,243.348 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 6.1%, which is 0.8 percentage points higher than the national average; Hunan's was 1,193.844 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 4.8%, which is 0.5 percentage points lower than the national average; Jiangxi's was 735.13 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 4.0%, which is 1.3 percentage points lower than the national average.
Industrial value-added growth outpaces the national average
Manufacturing is the cornerstone of the central region's economy, and the growth rate of value-added in large-scale industries in the three central provinces is higher than the national average.
In the first quarter of this year, the value-added of large-scale industries in Hubei grew by 7.7%, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the previous year, and 1.6 percentage points higher than the national average. Among the 41 major industrial categories, 30 experienced positive growth, with a growth rate of 73.2%. Profits of large-scale industrial enterprises reached 30.33 billion yuan, with a growth of 34.1%, which is 24.1 percentage points higher than the national average.
In Hunan, the value-added of large-scale industries grew by 7.6%, which is 3.7 percentage points faster than the same period last year and 2.5 percentage points faster than the previous year, 1.5 percentage points higher than the national average. Among the 39 major industrial categories, 33 industries achieved growth, with an industry growth rate of 84.6%, an increase of 28.2 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
In Jiangxi, the value-added of large-scale industries grew by 7.3%, which is 1.2 percentage points higher than the national average, and 1.2 percentage points faster than January to February, reaching the highest growth rate since last year, with a year-on-year increase of 8.8% in March. Among the 38 major industrial categories, 21 industries experienced positive growth, with a growth rate exceeding 50%. The province's industrial enterprise prosperity index was 128.8%, an increase of 2.0 percentage points from the previous quarter.
New quality productive forces have provided the central region with another important handle for its rise. In the first quarter of this year, the value-added of high-tech manufacturing in Hubei grew by 21.5%, which is 15.8 percentage points faster than the previous year, with a contribution rate to the growth of large-scale industries of 28.7%. The production of new energy vehicles, microcomputer equipment, and mobile communication handsets increased by 108.9%, 20.2%, and 34.6%, respectively. Hunan's equipment manufacturing industry made a significant contribution, with a value-added growth of 10.3%, contributing 39.6% to the growth of scale industries. The production of high-end intelligent products such as industrial optoelectronic devices, logic chips, mobile phones, and lithium-ion batteries increased by 21.7%, 28%, 33.6%, and 35.1%, respectively. Jiangxi's new energy products performed brightly, with the production of new energy vehicles increasing by 155.7%, lithium-ion batteries by 40.5%, and charging piles by 49.9%.
Yang Chang, the chief analyst at Zhongtai Securities Research Institute, told the First Financial reporter that the "New Era Promoting the Rise of the Central Region Symposium" held on March 20 proposed that the central region is China's modern equipment manufacturing and high-tech industry base. In line with the current requirements of new quality productive forces, relying on the solid foundation of the central region, continuing to advance the process of industrialization, vigorously developing the manufacturing industry, and seizing the important opportunity to transform traditional manufacturing with emerging technologies, is conducive to promoting the rise of the central region to a new level.
Fixed asset investment "off-season is not light"The first quarter is traditionally the "off-season" for construction projects, but the three central provinces have taken the lead in starting early, with the overall situation of fixed asset investment showing a continuous upward trend.
From January to March this year, Hunan's fixed asset investment increased by 4.1% year-on-year, a rebound of 7.2 percentage points from the previous year, especially with private investment turning from negative to positive, and infrastructure investment showing a recovery growth; Hubei's fixed asset investment increased by 5.8%, with more funds flowing into the real economy and social public fields, and the investment in major projects with a planned total investment of more than 1 billion yuan increased by 30.4%, with a significant driving effect of large projects; Jiangxi's industrial investment increased by 3.9%, reversing the downward trend since last year, driving investment growth by 1.4 percentage points, with 6,541 construction projects with an investment of more than 100 million yuan, driving investment growth by 2.6 percentage points.
At the beginning of this month, the Optics Valley New Display Industry R&D and production base project started in Wuhan New City. The project has a total investment of 650 million yuan, and plans to build a comprehensive building, sharing center, R&D factory, heavy production factory, and other R&D and production functional carriers, creating favorable conditions for the entry of panel display, precision manufacturing industries, and upstream and downstream enterprises in the region.
At the end of last month, the second batch of major projects in Hunan Province in 2024 started simultaneously in the Hisense Changsha Comprehensive Production Base project and 13 city and state sub-venues such as Loudi City. The province's 687 major projects started simultaneously, with a total investment of 216.7 billion yuan.
The First Financial reporter noticed that the investment characteristics of the three central provinces have become more and more significant in recent years. In the first quarter of this year, Hubei's high-tech manufacturing industry investment and industrial technology transformation investment increased by 10.0% and 12.1% respectively, accelerating by 17.5 and 4.5 percentage points respectively compared to the previous year; investment in scientific research and technical service industry increased by 50.1%. From January to February, R&D expenses of large-scale automobile, electrical, and computer communication industry enterprises increased by 11.0%, 3.7%, and 3.3% respectively.
Hunan's innovative investment growth rate is relatively fast, with the province's high-tech industry investment increasing by 7.9%, of which high-tech manufacturing industry investment increased by 11.4%; Jiangxi's aviation industry technology transformation investment represented by aircraft major parts manufacturing and parts processing increased by 26.8%, new material investment represented by rare earth and metal increased by 3.9%, and clean energy investment represented by photovoltaic and solar energy increased by 27.3%.
The total social consumption of the three provinces exceeds 1.4 trillion yuan.
With the strong support of consumption promotion policies, coupled with the "Double Festival" holiday effect and the "Spring Outing" effect, the total retail sales of consumer goods in the three central provinces reached 1,411.525 billion yuan, with the growth rate of the three provinces all higher than the national average (4.7%).
In the first quarter, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Hubei Province was 592.74 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%, with per capita consumer expenditure of 7,412 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.8%, an increase of 5 percentage points compared to the same period last year; the total retail sales of consumer goods in Hunan Province was 503.685 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to the same period last year, and an acceleration of 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous year; the total retail sales of consumer goods in Jiangxi Province was 315.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points compared to January-February.
Data shows that consumption such as residents going out, dining, entertainment, and tourism has grown rapidly. In the first quarter, Hubei residents' expenditure on dining out, ticket purchases, and hotel accommodation and other service consumption grew rapidly, with per capita cultural entertainment expenditure and transportation expenditure both increasing by more than double digits year-on-year. The holiday economy, flower appreciation economy, and consumption voucher effect have driven the market to continue to heat up, with the province receiving a total of 160 million tourists, a 12.3% increase.Visiting relatives and tourism in Hunan have created a superimposed effect, with the cultural and tourism market remaining hot, and the retail sales of legal entities in the province's accommodation and catering industry above the designated size limit increased by 10.5% year-on-year. Jiangxi achieved a catering revenue of 43.57 billion yuan, a growth of 10.5%. Among them, the catering delivery and takeout meal services of units above the designated size limit achieved a meal revenue of 240 million yuan, a growth of 58.9%; the meal revenue achieved by snack services was 120 million yuan, a growth of 34.3%.
The consumption of bulk commodities has a strong driving force, and the sales of new energy vehicles have further expanded. In the first quarter, the retail sales of automotive products in Hunan increased by 12.5% year-on-year, with the retail sales of new energy vehicles increasing by 93.3% year-on-year, an increase of 52.3 percentage points compared to the same period last year; the retail sales of new energy vehicles in Hubei grew by 61.0%, and those in Jiangxi grew by 46.5%.
Yang Chang stated that the consumption data of the three central provinces in the first quarter were eye-catching, and the driving effect mainly came from two aspects. First, the driving effect of service consumption was obvious, including a significant increase in travel and cultural tourism consumption, which is consistent with the national data during the Spring Festival and Qingming holiday periods; second, the driving effect of new energy vehicles was obvious, which is related to the recent release of consumer purchase demand stimulated by local policies such as trade-ins for new vehicles.